RIGA, June 12 (LETA) - The municipal elections were held securely and no external influence has been detected, Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) told Latvian Radio on Thursday.

She pointed out that this had been confirmed to the members of the government by security experts and services.

The Prime Minister reminded that the Central Election Commission's (CVK) statement during one of the early votes days about an external attack on the voting system did not correspond to the truth.

"Security was not disturbed and there was no external influence. This is very important," the Prime Minister said.

According to Silina, the CVK was not up to the task during the elections. She also pointed out that nobody at political level knew that there would be any technical problems during the elections. This is the responsibility of the CVK and the National Digital Development Agency (VDAA), the Prime Minister stressed.

Speaking about the overall security situation related to the these elections, the Prime Minister stressed that the choice of the residents of Daugavpils should be respected. The party of the incumbent Mayor Andrejs Elksnins (Let's Go, Latgale!) won the elections in Daugavpils with an overwhelming majority.

Silina believes that in this case, as head of the government, but especially as head of the party, conclusions should be made as to why other parties have failed to convince the people of Daugavpils.

At the same time, she stressed that the reports of the security services are regularly heard in connection with various hybrid threats. "And Latvia is at a fairly high level of preparedness to respond to such risks," Silina said.

As reported, vote counting following last weekend's municipal elections in Latvia was marred by technical glitches, which were reported in the electoral system already during early voting.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said that the CVK and the VDAA failed in organizing the local elections.

The CVK was also accused of poor communication with both the public and the polling stations. In particular, on one of the days of the previous vote, the CVK announced that there had been an external attack on the voting system, but this turned out not to be true. On election night, when technical problems were experienced and the counting of votes could not be carried out, the polling stations were not informed for a long time on how to proceed.

Taking responsibility for what happened, a few days later the Minister of Smart Administration and Regional Development Inga Berzina (New Unity) and the Chair of the CVK Kristine Saulite announced their resignations, while the Director of the VDAA, Jorens Liopa, has been suspended by the now departed Minister, but he has not announced his departure.